Arizona centennial: Holsum Bakery in 1880s Arizona

by Betty Beard - Mar. 3, 2011 04:23 PMThe Arizona Republic

Phoenix had only about 1,500 residents when 25-year-old German immigrant and cook Edward Eisele arrived in 1881 and got a job at the Phoenix Bakery at Center and Washington streets, where the CityScape complex is now.

Three years later, he bought the business for $300 and ended up creating a company with a history as classic as the white bread it makes. Two generations and 127 years later, Holsum Bakery is now a part of publicly traded Flower Foods Inc. of Thomasville, Ga.

Though no longer Arizona-based, the company's story mirrored the history of a growing territory, state and nation as well as changing technology and business practices.

Eisele first delivered loaves by walking around. Gradually, he switched to a bicycle, horse-drawn wagon and a fleet of wagons. In 1910, he and his partner, Alfred Becker, who had joined him in 1887, bought a gas-powered Model T.

After Eisele's death in 1927, Phoenix Bakery was taken over by his son Lloyd and Becker's son Charles. Their innovations included offering sliced bread and advertising on radio. The company moved and expanded several times.

In 1929, they bought the rights to a well-known brand from the W.E. Long Co. in Chicago, and from then on, the business and products were known as Holsum. Today, it supplies Holsum, Aunt Hattie's and Roman Meal-brand breads.

Lloyd's son, Ed, who was president of Holsum Bakery from 1976 until 2010, said it was always a race to acquire the technology to handle a growing customer base.

He was first taken to the bakery as a child.

When Ed was in seventh grade, his dad started him cleaning, and Ed made 80 cents and then $1 an hour, big money in those days. In the 1950s, he filled in for vacationing drivers and earned several hundred dollars a week delivering bread for about 12 hours a day, starting at 3 a.m.

Today, no original family members are involved. In 2008, Holsum merged with Flower Foods.

But Ed Eisele, who retired from Holsum last year, still sniffs the air when he drives near the bakery the family built in 1946 near Interstate 17 and McDowell Road.

"Anytime I am driving down the freeway, I can always tell what they are baking," he said.